31–40 of 97 posts
1688 is not prounounced as "yoh-leeyoh-ba-ba". The 1 is pronounced as "ee". This actually makes it closer to Alibaba.
1 is pronounced "yoh"/"yao" in the context of phone numbers.
One reason why Chinese have less difficulty remembering and using these numbers than the western fellows might be the difference in pronunciation. In Chinese, all single digit number has the same structure: a consonant plus a vowel. For example, 7, in Chinese is pronounced as [ch-i:], while in English is pronounced as [ˈsɛvən]. Also, every digit takes the same time to pronounce. For example, a string "123456" is [yi:…
Memorizing times tables used to be common in UK schools. They stopped because it doesn't appear to help children understand what multiplication actually is. It is probably going to come back because of our current minister of education's liking of memorization.
I think there is actually value in memorization. Even in the age of google.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup (but sometimes up to 10x10) Of course, we would only need to memorize (10-x) items for the x table, except 1x anything, which is trivial so, know 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x5, 2x6, 2x7, 2x8, 2x9 from 3, you can begin at 3x3, then 3x4, etc to be more advanced you only need to know up to 5, and do the rest with math... 9 7? easy peasy. (5+4) (5+3) = 5 5 + 5 3 + 4 5 + 4 3 -> 25 + 15 + 20 + 12 = 72 (there are other tricks you…
Well, that's an example of the time-memory tradeoff, right? It takes a lot longer to calculate 9·7 that way than it does if you've just memorized it. The real question is where to draw the line with respect to diminishing returns on memorizing products for larger and larger numbers.
memorizing without knowledge is for chumps!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1 is pronounced "yoh"/"yao" in the context of phone numbers.
Which I find very frustrating as it sounds much more similar to liu (6) when pronounced in my crappy Chinese than yi does.
yao1 (1) and liu4 (6) should be pretty distinct. but if the way you pronounce them is similar for whatever reason, you can always use yi and chinese listeners won't flinch. in fact, taiwanese americans will be confused by yao, but zero people will be confused by yi so it's arguably better to use that if you don't know the background of your counterparty.
As I understand, punycode is translated by the browser to a standard ASCII string, so there's no need for special support in the DNS system or other infrastructure other than a simple translation in the browser's URL handling. Seems like a pretty straightforward/simple solution.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which I find very frustrating as it sounds much more similar to liu (6) when pronounced in my crappy Chinese than yi does.
chinese speakers like yao often because it sounds LESS like other numbers and is harder to miss. yao1 (1) and liu4 (6) should be pretty distinct. but if the way you pronounce them is similar for whatever reason, you can always use yi and chinese listeners won't flinch. in fact, taiwanese americans will be confused by yao, but zero people will be confused by yi so it's arguably better to use that if you don't know the…
I'm surprised there's no mention here of punycode and IDNs. Is there just not enough widespread support for IDNs (the article mentions a need for plugins, but I thought most browsers already support IDNs), or are numbers really that much easier to type and remember than short, meaningful domains in native characters? As I understand, punycode is translated by the browser to a standard ASCII string, so there's no need…
Many TLDs disallow registrations containing punycode. Take a look at Wikipedia's (incomplete?) list of those that do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cctlds
I'm surprised there's no mention here of punycode and IDNs. Is there just not enough widespread support for IDNs (the article mentions a need for plugins, but I thought most browsers already support IDNs), or are numbers really that much easier to type and remember than short, meaningful domains in native characters? As I understand, punycode is translated by the browser to a standard ASCII string, so there's no need…
> there's no need for special support in the DNS system or other infrastructure Many TLDs disallow registrations containing punycode. Take a look at Wikipedia's (incomplete?) list of those that do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cctlds
The one technical challenge I suppose could be a concern would be optionally implementing some sort of test to detect domain registration attempts that use similar-looking characters to those in existing legitimate domains (e.g., registrations from scammers attempting phishing attacks with domains that look similar to other domains but use different extended characters).
Still, it feels like the lack of support from these TLDs is more a matter of policy than a technical challenge.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Memorizing the times tables (up to 12·12) is standard in American schools.
Yup (but sometimes up to 10x10) Of course, we would only need to memorize (10-x) items for the x table, except 1x anything, which is trivial so, know 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x5, 2x6, 2x7, 2x8, 2x9 from 3, you can begin at 3x3, then 3x4, etc to be more advanced you only need to know up to 5, and do the rest with math... 9 7? easy peasy. (5+4) (5+3) = 5 5 + 5 3 + 4 5 + 4 3 -> 25 + 15 + 20 + 12 = 72 (there are other tricks you…